After the War Part 1
by theaterman007
Summary: I've been wondering what kind of adventures Shepard could have in the three years between Ch. 4 and 5 of my "Extended" Extended Cut. If you haven't already read it I highly recommend doing so before proceeding. This series will feature Shepard going up against his few surviving enemies from the games and introduce an original main antagonist with a connection to a ME1 assignment.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: As the summary says, this is going to be one of a few adventures I thought Shepard could have between the 4th and 5th chapters of my "Extended" Extended Cut. Before I begin I want to warn you all of one thing. There WILL BE deaths in this series, including some beloved characters from the games. I'm sorry if some of you might not approve of my choices. I don't like the idea of doing it but I feel it is going to be necessary to the story. But that's the beauty of the Mass Effect series. No one has to have the same head-canon of how the series plays out. My stories are just going to be one of potentially infinite ways the series could go after the last game. At any rate, I hope you enjoy this series as much as I am going to enjoy writing it.

Feedback, complimentary or critical, is welcomed.

Disclaimer: The universe and many of the characters in this story are the creation and property of Bioware and EA games.

* * *

Inside an office in a secret underground bunker, a figure sat behind a desk scrolling through some images on a datapad. The images featured many individuals of different species. There were some asari, krogan, humans, a turain, and a quarian. When the figure got to an image of a particular human, anger filled their eyes. They wanted to smash the datapad after seeing the image but they were stopped by the sudden ringing sound coming from their comm. terminal.

"It's me," said a male voice that came from the terminal, "Phase one is underway. Do you have any final orders?"

"No," the figure responded, "proceed as planned."

"Copy that. I will keep you updated as we progress."

With that said, the call ended and the figure turned their attention back to image on the datapad. This time instead of their eyes filling with anger, a smile began to form. Afterwards they started laughing.

"It won't be long now," they said.

* * *

It has been three months since the end of the Reaper War. The repairs were still ongoing but many major ones had been completed. The most important repair that was recently completed was the mass relays. With the relays repaired, the soldiers who were scattered after the firing of the crucible could return to their home planets. Also the Citadel, the space station that housed the Citadel Council, had been moved back to the Serpent Nebula. The first act the Citadel Council did once peace had been established was extend invitations to all the species who participated in the war to join the Council. Now every intelligent species in the galaxy holds a seat on the Council. After many millennia of war, all of the races could peacefully co-exist.

Although the galaxy is a more peaceful place following the war, gangs and mercenaries still existed and were causing trouble. Fortunately it was nothing that the galaxy's armed forces couldn't handle. For the major security risks, the Council would deploy their Spectre agents.

On board the SSV Normandy, the crew had gathered around the memorial wall on the crew deck. Each one of them had a look of sadness on their face. The person who probably had the saddest look was its commanding officer Captain Shepard. He had hoped that with the Reaper War being over he would finally get a break from having to add a friend's name to the wall. Unfortunately that was not the case today. He looked down at the plaque in his hand. It had the name of the next person to be added to it: Javik.

After gazing into his memory shard and reliving the death of his squad, Javik told Shepard in London that he had only one plan for after the Reaper War was over: to return to the place where his squad was laid to rest and take his own life so that he may join them. When the war ended, he stuck around for a while to see that Shepard had recovered from the injuries he sustained firing the Crucible. Javik then asked Shepard for some shore leave to go "visit some old friends." Shepard knew what friends he was talking about and what he was going to do when he got there but approved the request anyway. Javik had made up his mind and nothing Shepard could have said would change that. True to his word, Javik went to the Cronean Nebula. Once he found his squad's last resting place, he took out his sidearm, pointed it at his head, and pulled the trigger. The last Prothean was dead.

Even though Shepard knew Javik's death was coming, it didn't make it any easier for him to accept it. When he was done looking at the plaque, he placed it up on the memorial wall. He then took a step back and saluted. The rest of the crew did the same. When the salutes were dropped, Shepard dismissed the crew and everyone headed back to their posts. Shepard remained behind to stare at the wall a little longer. The wall just seemed to keep getting fuller every time he looked at it. He prayed that this would be the last name he would have to add for a long time. He was snapped out of his gaze when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"Are you going to be ok?"

It was his fiancée Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams. After the two of them had gotten engaged, they made requests to both the Alliance and the Council for them to be allowed to continue to serve together on the Normandy. The Alliance couldn't see any reason for them not to allow it. They both were among the best soldiers they had and demonstrated incredible teamwork against the Reapers. The Council felt that it seemed only fitting to have their two human Spectres work together. As a result, Ashley remained on the Normandy as the new Executive Officer.

"I think so," Shepard replied, "it might take a while but I'll be all right."

"You know," Ashley said, "I can keep an eye on things if you want to go up to your cabin and rest for a bit."

"Yeah I could use it. Thanks Ash."

The two of them kissed and then Shepard got on the elevator and headed up to his cabin.

* * *

The first thing Shepard did when he got up to his cabin was put his Alliance dress uniform back in his closet. Lately it seemed like he almost dreaded putting it on. He preferred to wear his N7 leather jacket around the ship but would wear his dress uniform for important occasions. However, since he was reinstated back when the Reaper War began, the only important occasions he wore it for were memorials. The only exception being the war summit with the turians, salarians and krogan but even that one was a rough day. The only thing that gave him comfort about his uniform was the fact that he would soon be wearing it on his and Ashley's wedding day.

Once his uniform was put away, Shepard noticed his reflection in the mirror. His scars seemed to be healing really well. He had been severely injured during the final battle against the Reapers. Between the rush to the Citadel beam in London and the firing of the Crucible, he should have been dead. Fortunately Ashley didn't give up hope that he could still be alive and led the team that found him on the Citadel. It had been touch and go but by a miracle Shepard survived. He was on bed rest for a month but was now back on active duty.

Shepard headed straight for his bed. He gently laid himself down and looked up at the stars through the window on the ceiling. The view always made him smile a little. It used to be that every time he looked out into space he would think about the danger it was in because of the Reapers. Now that the Reapers had been defeated, he could just focus on the beauty of the view. With his smile growing and eyelids closing, Shepard drifted off to sleep.

"Captain," said a voice over the intercom, "are you still awake?"

Shepard's eyes shot back open when he heard the voice. It was Joker, the Normandy's helmsman.

"No thanks to you Joker," he said slightly frustrated.

"Sorry Captain. I really didn't want to disturb you but we have an urgent transmission coming in from the Citadel. Sir it's from Councilor Hackett."

That last sentence made Shepard snap awake. When the war ended, the Council had asked Admiral Steven Hackett to fill humanity's seat in recognition for his role as the commanding officer of the unified fleet that launched the final attack against the Reapers. He was initially hesitant but after a pep talk from Shepard, he agreed. Shepard had great respect for Hackett as a leader and knew he was a perfect fit for the job. If Hackett was calling Shepard, it was about something important and he needed to drop everything to take the call. He shot up from the bed and quickly put on his N7 jacket.

"I'll take it in the comm. room Joker," he said.

"Roger that," Joker replied.

* * *

Shepard arrived in the comm. room to be greeted by the projected image of Councilor Hackett. It was an unusual sight seeing Hackett not in his military uniform but his new role as councilor meant a new dress code.

"Good to see you again Captain Shepard," said Hackett.

"You too Councilor," Shepard said, "though I'm probably not a pretty sight right now."

"Yes your helmsman told me about the memorial you had for Javik. I'm sorry for your loss Captain."

"Thank you. What can I do for you sir?"

"We've got a situation brewing with the batarians. Their councilor is concerned that a splinter faction in his government might be planning an attack."

"What makes him think so?"

"As you are aware, the batarian Hegemony was severely decimated by the Reapers. We were fortunate that the few leaders that were left agreed to offer their support for the war effort. They were allowed to join the Council to show our gratitude. With Council support, the Hegemony was starting to come together again. Unfortunately there are some leaders who still hold grudges against the Council and the Alliance. They see joining the Council as a sign of surrender. The councilor is concerned they might launch an attack to force him to withdraw the batarians from the Council."

"Do we know any of the batarians who are in the splinter faction?"

"Yes and that is why I called you. The leader of the group is an old acquaintance of yours."

A chill ran up Shepard's spine. He had crossed paths with many batarian criminals during his time in the Alliance but there was only one who was still alive and only because Shepard had no choice but to let him go.

"Balak," he said through his grit teeth.

"Correct," Hackett said, "he was the highest ranking officer in the Hegemony until he started insisting that with the Reapers gone, the batarians should fight to achieve dominance over the entire galaxy. He said that he only agreed to have his troops join our war effort to defeat the Reapers. Fortunately the rest of the batarians didn't agree and removed him from power. Now he talks about getting revenge on his people for betraying him. Recently the councilor got word that Balak might be gathering supplies to follow through with his threat. The Council is tasking you with uncovering his plan and stop it."

Shepard snapped to attention and saluted, "Yes sir."

"Good luck Captain. Hackett out."


	2. Chapter 2

The day after Hackett's call, Shepard was on board the Kodiak shuttle heading for Illium. Ashley was sitting next to him. They were in the middle of a call with Liara T'Soni. An asari and former archeologist, she was a former squad mate of Shepard's and one of his closest friends. Unknown to all but a few, Shepard among the few, she worked as the Shadow Broker. The Shadow Broker was the name given to an enigmatic and powerful information broker. Shepard had helped Liara take down the previous Shadow Broker after the broker was revealed to be working with the Collectors. Liara took over the position to use the broker's resources in the fight against the Reapers. She now serves as Shepard's most trusted source of information for his Spectre missions.

"What are we looking for here Liara?" Shepard asked.

"A turian merchant named Illo Corin," Liara replied, "I've been tracking Balak's finances from the last few days and have found that he made a purchase from Corin's shop on Illium. I haven't been able to find out what Balak has purchased specifically because the transaction records only shows the money. I'm guessing the merchandise is something illegal and Corin wants to keep it hidden. If we're going to have any chance of figuring out what Balak is planning, we need to find out what Corin sold him."

"I doubt we can just walk up to him and ask what kind of stuff he carries," Ashley said.

"Exactly. You don't have to worry though. I went ahead and recruited an expert who can help you."

"What kind of expert?" Shepard asked.

Before Liara could answer, Lieutenant Steve Cortez, Shepard's shuttle pilot, called out from his seat at the front of the shuttle.

"Captain," he said, "we are about to touch down on Illium."

"Copy that Lieutenant," Shepard responded.

"The expert will meet you once you're on the ground," Liara continued, "she will go over the plan with you then."

"She?"

"Liara out."

Before Shepard could stop her, Liara cut the communication. Ashley sighed.

"Has she always been this vague whenever she gives you information?" she asked.

"Not always," Shepard replied.

After Cortez landed the shuttle, Shepard and Ashley stepped out onto the bustling world of Illium. It had been more than a year since the last time Shepard was on Illium. During his mission against the Collectors, he had to put together a strong team to go on what was more than likely going to be a suicide mission. He came to Illium to recruit two potential squad members. Later he would return to help his XO on that mission, Miranda Lawson. Miranda's father had hired Eclipse mercenaries to abduct her sister who was living on Illium. With Shepard's help, Miranda rescued her sister before that could happen. It was hard to believe what could change in a year.

Illium was one of the elite financial planets. All kinds of deals went down here. Unfortunately not all of them were legal. To some, Illium was like Omega in terms of how laws were regulated. The only difference between the two was Illium at least looked respectable. Now that wasn't the case.

The Reapers didn't spare Illium the destruction it delivered every other planet. It still had an upscale look to it but now was covered with rubble. In spite of this, business seemed to be booming. It reminded Shepard of how people tried to go about their business like there wasn't a war going on. Now people go about their business to forget the war happened.

Shepard and Ashley scanned the crowd looking for the expert but it was no use. Liara only told them the expert was a woman. She didn't give them a name or a description. There were plenty of women in the crowd making it that much difficult. They began to walk around to search the area when suddenly they heard a voice.

"Captain Shepard," the voice said, "enter the password and receive a free gift."

Shepard turned to the source of the voice. It was coming from a galactic news vid screen. There was no face on the screen but Shepard didn't need to see a face to know who it was. He heard that same exact phrase when he recruited master thief Kasumi Goto for the Collector mission. Add that to him recognizing her voice, there was no doubt that it was Kasumi.

"Silence is golden," he said.

"There's an observation deck at your nine o'clock. I'm sitting on one of the benches there," Kasumi replied.

Ashley turned to face towards the observation deck benches. A look of confusion appeared on her face.

"Skipper," she said, "there's no one there."

"She's there," Shepard replied, "she's just using her tactical cloak."

"You know me so well Shep," Kasumi said as she turned off her cloak making her appear to materialize out of thin air. She rose up from the bench she was sitting on and started walking toward Shepard and Ashley.

"Good to see you again Kasumi," Shepard said shaking Kasumi's hand, "you remember Ashley from my shore leave party."

"Yes and I believe congratulations are in order. I heard that you two got engaged after the war ended."

"Thank you," Ashley said, "you know I wanted to send you an invitation to the wedding but you're a hard person to locate."

"Sorry about that but I wouldn't last long as a thief if I was easy to find."

"True. Well you can consider yourself invited."

Shepard rolled his eyes. As happy as he was for Kasumi to finally be officially invited to the wedding, he wasn't thrilled with talking about it. He promised Ashley that he would help as much as possible with the wedding planning. A promise he later regretted after the first few weeks. If he had known how much planning was going to be involved, he would never have made the promise. It was obvious to Ashley that Shepard was getting bored with the planning but she never let on. Secretly she enjoyed torturing him. Shepard knew he was going to have to head off this discussion fast otherwise they were never going to get to the mission.

"Okay ladies," interrupted Shepard, "let's save the wedding talk until after the mission is over. If you're our expert Kasumi I'm guessing that this mission is going to require either infiltration, theft or both."

"In this case it's both," Kasumi replied, "but let's go to my hotel before we talk about it more. There are too many eyes and ears around here."

* * *

Kasumi led Shepard and Ashley into her room. The hotel was a high class one but the room Kasumi rented was one of their smaller ones. It featured two bedrooms, a bathroom and a living room. She said that to rent a larger room is like sending an open invitation for a thief to come and rob it. Given that Kasumi was a thief she would know what looked inviting to one.

The first thing Shepard noticed when they entered the room was Kasumi's graybox sitting on a desk. The graybox originally belonged to Kasumi's former partner-in-crime and lover Keiji Okuda. After Keiji was killed by crime lord Donovan Hock, the graybox was all that Kasumi had left of him. Shepard was glad the graybox could help Kasumi relive memories of her time with Keiji but secretly he was worried that she might be spending too much time plugged into it. There had been some rumors that the reason grayboxes were illegal in most places was because overusing them could lead to a user losing the ability to discern what was real and what wasn't.

Once everyone was settled, Kasumi pulled out a datapad from a desk drawer. She tapped a few buttons and suddenly a holographic image of a warehouse appeared on a table in the center of the room.

"I already did some preliminary casing on Corin," Kasumi began, "I've determined that all of his goods come from a warehouse that he owns on the other side of town. The warehouse is three stories high. The first two stories contain multiple rooms where he keeps his goods. The third story has some office rooms. That is where our target is located. One of those offices is Corins and he more than likely keeps the records of his transactions on his terminal. Unfortunately the building has all the basic security measures. The building is wired with cameras, tripwires and there are several dozen guards patrolling the building."

Shepard chuckled, "Here I was thinking that you were going to tell us that this was going to be a challenge. Getting the graybox from Hock's mansion was more dangerous than this. Hock had the basic security measures as well as security mechs and a gunship. If anything those were the most difficult things to deal with."

"True," Kasumi continued, "but our problem is not what happens if something goes wrong. Our problem in this case is there is no room for something to go wrong. Corin's terminal is linked to the warehouse's security system. If any alarm is triggered, a program is launched that will wipe any and all data he has stored on it. This has to be a 100% stealth mission."

"And there's the catch," Shepard sighed.

"Yeah," Ashley said, "we're not exactly known for being discreet."

"That's why Liara asked for my help," Kasumi said, "I am an expert on avoiding detection. However my skills can only cover so many bases. I can take out all the security measures but the guards can trigger the alarm too. That's where you two come in. While I take out the security measures, you will make sure the guards don't get a chance to call an alarm."

"Okay," Shepard said, "we know what we have to do. Let's begin our preparations. We hit the warehouse tonight."

* * *

As the sun set outside the window, Shepard and Ashley were in one of the bedrooms packing the rest of their combat gear. Kasumi was in the other bedroom gathering up the last of her hacking equipment. Once she was done she headed for Shepard and Ashley's room. Suddenly a voice called out to her.

"Kasumi."

Kasumi froze in her place. She knew that voice anywhere. But how was she hearing it? The person it belonged to was dead. Then it called her again.

"Kasumi."

This time Kasumi turned towards where she thought she heard the voice. Her mouth dropped open. Standing in front of her was Keiji. She quickly reached to her head and found that her graybox display was not up. This was not a greybox image of Keiji she was seeing. Could it actually be Keiji? She started walking towards him.

"Kasumi?"

A different voice called Kasumi's name. She turned and saw that Shepard was standing in the doorway of his room. Quickly glancing back to where she saw Keiji, she saw that he wasn't there anymore.

"Is everything okay?" Shepard asked.

Kasumi didn't answer right away. She was unsure of what to say. Finally she decided that what had just happened was not worth mentioning. She gave a simple nod to indicate she was okay.

"I was just coming to say that I'm ready to go when you are," she said.

"Okay," Shepard replied, "I'll go tell Williams. We move in five."

Shepard went back into the bedroom leaving Kasumi to her thoughts. Keiji was dead. Yet he just appeared in her room. Was she losing her mind? She couldn't be. She knew what she saw. Her eyes have never lied to her before. And yet, she just didn't know.


	3. Chapter 3

The sky had become completely dark by the time the trio had arrived at Corin's warehouse. Shepard set the skycar down behind some crates half a mile from the warehouse. Ashley was the first one out. She pulled out her sniper rifle and began scoping out the perimeter of the warehouse.

"I don't see any guards patrolling the main entrance," she said, "but there are at least three cameras. They have one just above the entrance and one on each corner."

Shepard pulled out his sniper rifle and could see that Ashley was right. He then switched his scope to thermal mode. There were three orange figures moving around on the other side of the door.

"My thermal scope is picking up at least three hostiles just inside," he said, "if we're going to get in undetected we need to do something with precision timing."

"Do you have a plan skipper?" Ashley asked.

"No but that's why we brought the expert," Shepard said looking over at Kasumi.

"You always say the nicest things Shep," said Kasumi, "you are right about the timing. I can't take out all of the cameras before one of them spots us. If that's the case, then our best bet is to wait for the one camera I don't hack to start to turn away. Once it does we'll have about ten seconds for me to hack the other two so we can get through the door."

"And once we get through the door Williams and I will take out the three guards before they have a chance to react," Shepard added.

"Sounds like a plan," Ashley said, "let's do it."

They watched as the camera on the far left corner of the building turn to face towards the door. Once it did, they moved around the front corner and lined up against the wall. Kasumi was at the front. She peeked around the corner and looked towards the other camera at the far corner. She turned towards Shepard and held up eight fingers indicating they had eight seconds before they launched their plan. Shepard took one last look through his thermal scope. The guards were still in the same positions when he checked before they moved. He turned back to Kasumi as the last of her fingers folded down.

Kasumi quickly turned the corner and pulled up her omni-tool. After a few quick button pushes, the camera directly above her powered down. She pushed a few more buttons and then the camera directly above the door went down. Shepard tapped Kasumi's shoulder to indicate he and Ashley were coming around her. He and Ashley headed for the door. Once they were in position, Shepard tapped the button to open the door. The guards inside barely had time to react to the door opening. Once it opened all the way, Shepard and Ashley already had their guns up and fired. Shepard took out two and Ashley took out the other. They kept their weapons up in case anyone came to investigate the noise. After a few seconds, no one else had entered the room. Kasumi was right behind them.

"I'm not picking up any alarms," she said, "I'd say we've had a successful infiltration."

"All right," Shepard said, "we continue according to plan, slow and steady."

"Copy skipper," Ashley said.

Shepard and Ashley began moving when Kasumi called out to them.

"Wait," she said, "I have to ask. You two are engaged but Ashley is still calling you skipper Shep. If anything I figured she would be one of the few people who called you by your first name."

Shepard chuckled, "We have an agreement that whenever we're on a mission we will be professional when we interact with each other. You've probably also noticed I've been calling her Williams."

"That makes sense but what are you going to do when you're married? I'm assuming Ashley that you are taking Shepard's name."

Ashley replied, "even though I'll legally be Ashley Shepard, I will still be called Williams in the field. Don't worry Kasumi we've thought of everything."

"All right people," Shepard interrupted, "let's keep moving."

The trio moved single file through the building. Shepard was on point. His gun leveled as he scouted for hostiles. Kasumi followed not too far behind them. Unlike Shepard, she was scouting for defenses. Ashley took up the rear watching their backs. For a while they hadn't run into any obstacles. Shepard figured it was because they were staying out of the storage room. Most of the guards would be there guarding Corin's merchandise. However he felt that once they got closer to Corin's office the security would get tighter.

They entered a stairwell to head to the third floor. Before Shepard could take the first step up, Kasumi suddenly reached her arm across Shepard's chest, stopping him in his tracks.

"What is it Kasumi?" he asked.

"Tripwires," Kasumi replied, "some of the steps have lasers going across them."

Shepard looked down. He couldn't see any lasers but that didn't mean they weren't there. A quick glance at the walls found the source. Corin was clever. He didn't put the source on the wall directly next to the stairs. Instead he put it on the opposite wall and placed it so it shone through gaps in the railings. Shepard glanced further up the wall. There were other laser sources scattered along it.

"Kasumi is it possible for us to simply step over the lasers?" he asked.

Kasumi's eyes scanned the stairs, "we would have to be really careful but I think we can. My guess is Corin purposely spaced them so that it his guards could walk through here without having to deactivate the lasers."

"I'll go first. Once I'm a couple of steps up, Kasumi follows then Williams. Let's give each other some space. We'll take one step at a time, one person at a time so we don't bunch up."

"Got it," Ashley and Kasumi said in unison.

Slowly and steadily they made their way up the steps. It took them a few minutes for them to reach the third floor. Shepard was about to open the door when suddenly a noise came from below them. Everyone froze. Somebody else was in the stairwell with them. Ashley raised her rifle looking down the stairs waiting for them to come up. Shepard made a noise to get her attention. When she turned to face him, she saw him shaking his head. She realized that he was right. If she shot whoever it was, they would fall down the stairs and trip one of the lasers and the mission would be over. There was nothing they could do but remain still, quiet and hope that the guard didn't continue up the stairs to the third floor.

After what felt like hours, the sound of a door opening and closing echoed through the stairwell. The trio waited to be sure the guard was gone. When they didn't hear any other sounds, Shepard figured that it was safe proceed. He opened the door and exited the stairwell onto the third floor. Ashley and Kasumi were about to follow him out when suddenly Shepard came back in nearly knocking them over. He was breathing heavily.

"Camera down the hall," he said in between breaths, "it almost made me."

Kasumi activated her infiltration cloak and stepped in front of Shepard. She slowly poked her head out the door. Sure enough there was a camera directly over a door down the hallway. She stepped further into the hall and saw that the door was to Corin's office. The sound of footsteps from behind her got her attention. When she turned around, she saw a guard had just turned a corner and was walking towards her. He infiltration cloak made her invisible but the guard would be able to hear her footsteps if she made a break for the staircase. The guard was now inches from her.

Suddenly, two hands reached out from the stairwell and pulled the guard out of the hallway. Kasumi heard what sounded like a brief struggle. Then the sounds ceased completely. Kasumi remained still waiting for someone to appear in the stairwell. Finally Ashley appeared in the doorway.

"Everything okay out there?' she asked.

"I think it is now," Kasumi replied, "everything good in there?"

"Shepard and I are good. I can't say the same for our friend. I think he's going to be out for a while."

"Good. I think we're all clear now."

"Roger that," Shepard said, "disable the camera and we'll head into the office."

A few button pushes later and the camera over Corin's office door was off. The trio lined themselves up against the door. Shepard and Kasumi lined up on one side of the door and Ashley lined up on the other. Shepard gave Ashley a nod and Ashley tapped the button to open the door. The minute it was open, Shepard and Ashley walked into the office with their rifles raised. A quick scan of the room detected no movements in the office. Corin wasn't here. Shepard turned toward Kasumi and nodded towards the computer terminal on the desk. Kasumi headed to the desk and went to work on the terminal.

"I'm in," she said, "Pulling up his sales records and…got it. Take a look."

Shepard and Ashley stepped around the desk to look at the terminal. Kasumi stepped back to give them room. Suddenly a voice came from outside the office.

"Kasumi."

It was Keiji's voice again. Just like Kasumi heard back at her hotel room. Every fiber of her being was telling her to ignore the voice. Keiji was dead so there was no way he could be calling her name. All she had to do was just stay in the office and wait for Shepard to finish analyzing the info on the terminal.

"Kasumi."

The voice came again. It sounded louder than the last one, almost as if Keiji was out in the hallway walking towards the office. Then he appeared. Keiji stepped into the doorway. He stood there for several seconds before he raised his arm and used his finger to gesture Kasumi to follow him. He continued to make the gesture as he stepped out of the doorway back into the hall. Kasumi reached for her head to discover once again that this wasn't a greybox image she was seeing. Curiosity was starting to get the better of Kasumi and she started walking out of the office. Shepard was finishing pulling info from the terminal when he looked up to see Kasumi heading for the door.

"Kasumi?" he said concerned.

This time Kasumi didn't snap out of her trance when Shepard called her name. She assumed that the voice she was hearing was Keiji's.

"I'm coming Keiji," she called out.

"Kasumi?!" Shepard called as he raced around the desk to try and stop Kasumi from leaving the office.

He was too late.


	4. Chapter 4

Kasumi walked out of the office and came face to face with Corin himself. Corin didn't take long to pull a remote from his pocket and pushed a button. Alarms began blaring all across the warehouse. The alarms snapped Kasumi out of her trance. Once she saw that Corin was in front of him, she instinctively threw a right hook across his face. Corin fell to the floor unconscious. Shepard was now in the hallway with them. Keeping his gun trained on Corin, he bent down to confirm that Corin was still breathing. Once he felt a pulse, he rose up and checked both ends of the hall for any other hostiles.

"Don't worry about the alarm," he said to Kasumi, "we already have the information we need. However I think we're going to need to change our exfiltration plan."

"Yeah," Ashley said, "with the guards on alert I don't think we can go out the way we came in."

Shepard touched his ear and activated his comm., "Cortez we've been compromised. We need an emergency extraction."

"Copy that Captain," Cortez said over the comm., "head on up to the roof and I will pick you up there with the Kodiak, ETA ten minutes."

"Copy that. Williams, grab Corin. We should bring him with us. Cortez is going to meet us on the roof. Most of the guards will be on the lower levels. If we hurry we can get to the roof and set up a defensive position before the guards catch up to us."

"Aye aye skipper," Ashely said as she began to pick up Corin into a fireman's carry.

The trio raced for the stairway to the roof. Shepard barely got the door open when suddenly a voice came from down the hall.

"Hold it right there!"

Shepard turned to see two guards come around a corner at the end of the hallway. He quickly waved Ashley and Kasumi through the door. Once they were through, Shepard raised his rifle and began giving cover fire. The guards retreated back around the corner. After Ashley and Kasumi had gone up the first two flights of stairs, Shepard entered the stairwell and closed the door behind him. He raced after Ashley and Kasumi while trying to put as much distance as possible between him and the guards.

The night sky greeted Shepard when he went through the door at the top of the stairs. According to the time in his head, Cortez was still five minutes out. Five minutes was more than enough time for the guards to reach the roof and attack. Shepard and Ashley were going to have to work together to hold them back. Kasumi was a good shot as well but Shepard was not sure how much she could help. Something was off with her and it made Shepard uneasy. If they got out of their current predicament alive, he was going to have a talk with her about it.

The ladies were hiding behind a ventilation shaft that ran along the roof. Ashley had set Corin down beside her. Kasumi was sitting down still looking out of it. Shepard joined them behind the shaft. Ashley turned to face Kasumi and then back to Shepard. She looked concerned as well.

"What's going on skipper?" she asked, "Kasumi looks like she's in another world."

Shepard nodded, "I know I noticed it too. I've got an idea what it might be but we can't worry about that right now. Those guards will be on us any second and Cortez is still a few minutes out. You and I will have to hold them off by ourselves until he gets here."

Immediately after Shepard finished his statement, guards burst through the stairway door and opened fire. Shepard and Ashley ducked behind the shaft. Bullets flew over their heads just after they hit the floor. The guards had them pinned down and were no doubt moving to flank them. With the guard's constant firing, Shepard and Ashley couldn't get up to fire back. Something needed to get the guards to stop firing but what?

Suddenly Shepard remembered that among Kasumi's equipment were a couple of flash grenades. It wouldn't kill the guards but it might disorient them long enough for Shepard and Ashley to fight back. Shepard reached towards Kasumi's belt and fished in the pouches for the grenades. This was enough to break Kasumi out of her stare.

"What are you doing Shep?" she asked.

"Sorry Kasumi," Shepard replied, "but I need some of your flash bangs."

Shepard pulled his hand out of the pouch and found it held two flash grenades. He handed one to Ashley and held up his hand to give her a countdown.

Five…Four…Three…Two…One.

Once the countdown reached zero, Shepard threw his grenade. The guards retreated thinking it was a frag grenade. They didn't notice that Ashley was now throwing her grenade. It landed right in front of the guards as they ran away. The grenades went off shortly after. The flash that followed blinded every guard on the roof. Shepard and Ashley stood up with their weapons raised and began firing. One by one the guards fell.

As the last of the guards fell, Kasumi looked over the shaft and saw more guards were coming up the stairs. Shepard and Ashley were focused on the guards already on the roof and didn't see the others coming. Kasumi knew she had to do something. Still slightly shaking, she pulled out her Kassa Locust sub-machine gun. Before the first guard could exit the stairwell, Kasumi had her gun aimed at them and fired. Shepard and Ashley were now aware of the other guards and focused their aim towards the stairwell. The trio started alternating between who was firing. While one fired, the others put in new thermal clips so that they would not have a break in their fire thus giving the guards no chance to come onto the roof.

The cycle continued for a few minutes when Cortez's voice came over Shepard's comm. informing him that he was coming in for extraction. Shepard turned to see the Kodiak setting down onto the roof a short distance behind them. Shepard tapped Kasumi on the shoulder to tell her that when she was done firing to head for the shuttle. Ashley bent down to pick up Corin. Once Kasumi reached the shuttle, she started firing again to cover Ashley and Corin's approach to the shuttle. As soon as they were on the shuttle, Ashley set Corin down and fired her weapon to cover Shepard. With all three of them now on board, Shepard closed the hatch and ordered Cortez to take off. The shuttle lifted off the roof and flew away. The guards continued firing at the shuttle but it was no use. The shuttle was gone.

* * *

Kasumi was sitting in her seat on the shuttle looking down at the floor. She could feel Shepard standing over her. He was leaning near the door to the cockpit and his arms were crossed. He didn't say anything but just started at Kasumi. Ashley was sitting across from Kasumi staring at her as well. Finally the silence was too much for Kasumi.

"Go ahead and say it," she said, "I screwed up. The great master thief Kasumi Goto finally got caught. You both could have died because of me. You know if you don't want me to come to your wedding anymore I'll understand. Just drop me off in the city and you will never have to see me again. Maybe I can at least make myself hidden from you."

Shepard just bowed his head, "Kasumi we got the data we need and we got Corin. It might not have been a smooth run but we covered our mistakes and we accomplished our mission. I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about you. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm still shaken up about the mission going south but it's nothing I won't get over."

"That's not the real reason you're shaken up though is it?"

Kasumi didn't answer. Part of her knew that she had to tell Shepard what was going on but what could she say? Even she didn't know what was going on. Shepard would probably just think that she was going crazy. Crazy? Was she going crazy?

"Kasumi," Shepard finally said, "I heard you calling out for Keiji just before you walked out of the office."

"That's impossible," Kasumi said a little flustered, "Keiji is dead."

"Then why did you call out to him?"

"I didn't."

"You did," Ashley said, "I heard you say it as well."

Kasumi got up from her seat. She took a few steps as she thought about what to say. Tears were forming in her eyes. There was no choice now. Both Shepard and Ashley have noticed her acting strange. She had to tell them the truth. She prayed that they wouldn't think she was crazy.

"I saw him," she said sobbing, "I heard him calling my name and I looked up and there he was standing in the doorway. He wanted me to follow him. I told myself it was impossible. He was dead so he couldn't be there. But then I realized my graybox display wasn't on. I was seeing him with my own eyes. So I followed him. I barely get out the door and there was Corin instead of Keiji."

"Did you see him in the hotel room too?" Shepard asked.

"Yes. What's happening to me Shep?"

"Kasumi how often do you use the graybox?"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"How often do you use it?"

"At least twice a day, Keiji is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to bed."

"You said 'at least' twice a day. Do you sometimes use it more than that?"

"Any chance I can."

Shepard sighed. He was afraid she would say that. He walked over to Kasumi and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Kasumi," he said, "you can't keep this up. You've used the graybox so many times that you can't tell what's real and what isn't. I think you have to destroy the graybox."

"I….can't," Kasumi sobbed, "it's all I have left of Keiji."

"You don't need a graybox to remember all the times you've spent with Keiji. They will always be in your heart. He told you in his last message to destroy the graybox. At first I thought it was just to protect the information he had on it from falling into the wrong hands but now I think it was because he was afraid that this would happen to you if you kept it. I'm sorry Kasumi but destroying the graybox seems to be the only way for you to get better."

"No," Kasumi said as she turned away from Shepard.

Shepard was about to put his hand back on her shoulder but thought against it. He needed to give her some space.

"We still have a mission to do," he said, "think about what I said and we'll talk once the mission is complete."

Shepard took a seat next to Ashley who reached over and grabbed his hand. Shepard could tell that Ashley was worried too. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do to help Kasumi just yet. Balak was still out there and needed to be stopped. Once they were back on the Normandy, they would question Corin about the info they found on his terminal. Hopefully he would be able to lead them to Balak.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hello?! Is anyone out there?! I demand to know why you are keeping me here?!"

Corin was in a pitch black room tied to a chair. It felt like he had been in there for at least an hour since he woke up. The last thing he remembered was going to his office, running into a suspicious woman and triggering the alarm. After that it all went black. The sound of engines was the hint he needed to figure out where he was. He had to be on a ship.

Suddenly lights turned on and Corin realized he was in some kind of a cargo hold. Some of the crates in the cargo hold had the logo of the Earth System's Alliance. He concluded that he was on an Alliance ship. He was about to call out again when the door opened and a man walked into the room. The man had a datapad in his hand. Corin didn't have to think long to realize who it was.

"Captain Shepard," he said, "I might have guessed that you would be the one shooting up my warehouse."

"Nice to meet you too Corin," Shepard said, "for the record I didn't want to shoot up your warehouse but it got complicated when you set off the alarm."

"What do you want from me?"

"I know that you sold some merchandise to a batarian named Ka'hairal Balak. I broke into your warhouse to find out what you sold him."

"I'm a merchant. Selling merchandise is what I do and what I sell and who to is none of your business."

"It is my business when your client is a terrorist. Whatever Balak bought from you I don't think he has good intentions for it."

"What my clients decide to do with my merchandise is not my concern."

Shepard held up the datapad and tapped a few buttons. He found the transaction records that he was looking for and held the datapad up to Corin's face.

"Maybe not," he said, "but the fact that your merchandise includes some items that are illegal for distribution should be a concern of yours. According to the records we got from your terminal, you sold Balak an electromagnetic pulse bomb. Those are in fact illegal and in the hands of someone like Balak could lead to a lot of people dying. The only thing that the records don't tell me is where you sent the bomb."

"Then I guess you will never know," Corin said, "because I'm not telling you a thing. I know you Alliance types. You're all a bunch of soft hearted, lousy excuse for soldiers who follow all the laws even if they keep you from putting criminals away."

A sly smile spread across Shepard's face. This was exactly what he was hoping Corin would say. Shepard started walking to the back of Corin's chair.

"Actually Corin," Shepard said, "I'm not acting on behalf of the Alliance. I'm actually working this case as a Council Spectre."

Corin was now starting to get a little nervous. Everyone in the galaxy knew that the Council gave the Spectres complete leeway to do what they felt was necessary to accomplish their missions. Some stories told of Spectres torturing criminals, destroying colonies and even murdering civilians. Would Shepard resort to similar tactics to get the information he wanted?

"You know Corin," Shepard continued, "I think it's about time for me to take out the trash."

Shepard began pushing Corin's chair towards the garbage chute at the back of the room. Once they reached the chute, he tilted Corin forward so that Corin's head was angled down into the chute. Corin was protesting the whole time.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!' he screamed. "I KNOW MY RIGHTS! THIS IS ILLEAGL! YOU'RE ABUSING A SUSPECT!"

"Maybe you didn't hear what I said," Shepard said, "I'm a Council Spectre. I can conduct my investigation however I want. If it leaves a body count, it doesn't matter. Do you want to be a part of that count? TELL ME WHERE THE BOMB WAS SENT!

"You…you won't kill me," Corin stuttered.

"Strike one," Shepard said as he cut one of the ropes holding Corin to the chair, "on the third strike you won't have any rope to keep you from falling down the chute."

"OKAY!" Corin screamed. "Okay. Balak had me send the bomb to Khar'shan, the batarian homeworld."

"Did he tell you what he was planning to do with the bomb?"

"I don't know. I already told you I don't care what my customers do with my products."

"Strike two," Shepard said as he cut another rope. Corin was now dangling in his chair with the one strand of rope barely keeping him from falling down the chute.

"I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW!" Corin screamed, practically begging. "DON'T LET ME FALL! PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU!"

"THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE CORIN! WHAT IS BALAK GOING TO DO WITH THE BOMB?!"

"ALL RIGHT I'LL TALK! He's going to use it to disable security at the capitol city. From there he's going to launch an assault on the presidential palace and assassinate Grothan Pazness."

Shepard knew that name. Grothan Pazness was originally a governor of a batarian colony on Camala. He was an outspoken critic against the Alliance believing that they were responsible for the destruction of batarian comm. buoys when in fact they were destroyed by the Reapers. After Shepard and the Normandy rescued him from his world, he underwent a dramatic conversion. For the remainder of the Reaper War, he released daily extranet videos urging his fellow batarians to embrace all Citadel races as comrades in arms. When the war was over and Balak had been deposed, Pazness agreed to become the new Supreme Leader of the Batarian Hegemony. His actions were the main force behind the batarians joining the Council and being welcomed into the galactic community.

Shepard quickly pulled Corin's chair back and threw him to other side of the room. When the chair stopped moving, all Corin could do was sit in the chair panting and shaking. Shepard also thought that he heard Corin muttering "you're crazy" over and over. He didn't care. The important thing was he got all the information he needed to take Balak down. Shepard walked out of the cargo hold leaving Corin to continue muttering. Ashley was waiting for him just outside. She had a small smile on her face but Shepard couldn't help but get the feeling that she was a bit concerned about something.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied, "but honestly you scared me a little bit there. If I didn't know you better I would have thought you were going to throw him down the chute.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing you do know me better. I may be a Spectre but unlike some of our counterparts I need a better reason other than the fact a suspect is a scumbag before I decide to kill them."

Ashley's smile grew, "you're right. I'm sorry. You still are a true hero-man."

"Isn't that what you love about me?"

Ashley wrapped her arms around Shepard's neck, "that among other things."

Shepard leaned in to kiss Ashley but then stopped.

"What?" Ashley asked.

"Sorry Ash," Shepard replied, "but this is going to have to wait. Now that we know what Balak is up to we need to get Khar'shan."

"Joker has already plotted a course and Traynor is trying to get through to the presidential palace to warn them about Balak's plan."

"Let's just pray we're not too late. I'm going to tell Kasumi to get her gear together and meet us in the shuttle bay."

The smile on Ashley's face disappeared.

"What's wrong?" Shepard asked.

"I'm worried about her. I know we need her help but what if she starts seeing things while we're down there."

"She'll be fine. You and I will have her back. After the mission is over though, I don't know. Unfortunately we can't worry about that right now. We need to focus on saving Pazness first. I'll see you in the shuttle bay."

* * *

Within a few hours, the Kodiak had entered Khar'shan's atmosphere and was speeding towards the capitol city. Shepard was in the co-pilots seat with Cortez next to him. Ashley and Kasumi were sitting in the passenger compartment. Nobody had said a word since the shuttle left the Normandy. Everyone on board was worried to talk to Kasumi who sat in her seat rocking back and forth. She may have now known that seeing Keiji was an illusion but the possibility that she might see him again was keeping her on edge. Suddenly everyone on the shuttle rocked towards the front when it came to a sudden stop.

"Why are we stopping Lieutenant?" Shepard asked Cortez.

"We're at the minimum safe distance from the bomb," Cortez replied, "if I bring the Kodiak any closer and the bomb goes off, I won't be able to keep her airborne."

Shepard understood what Cortez said but he didn't like it. He sat back in his chair and started thinking. He had heard from Traynor that she had been unable to reach the presidential palace to warn them about the attack. The only thing Shepard could think of that made sense was that the terrorists were jamming communications. That meant they were about to or had already launched the attack. If they waited for the bomb to go off, there was no telling how long they had afterwards to stop Balak before he killed Pazness. There was only one option and it was a risky one. Then again, risky options were what Shepard excelled at.

"We have to get closer," Shepard said.

Everyone in the shuttle looked towards Shepard.

"But Captain," Cortez started to say.

"If we wait for the bomb to go off, Pazness will be dead before we get to the palace. Cortez I remember you landed this shuttle in one piece after being struck by the Leviathan's pulse…twice. Not only that but you managed to survive getting shot down by a harvester during the Battle for Earth. I know you and I know you are capable of landing this bird safely even if we get hit by the pulse. We may have to go the rest of the way on foot but at least we would be closer to the palace."

Cortez looked down and away from Shepard giving it some thought. Ashley and Kasumi looked at each other unsure of who they should side with. Finally Cortez looked back up at his controls with a new look of determination. "Let's do it," he said.

Shepard turned back towards the passenger compartment, "you better buckle up back there. If we go down it's going to be rough."

Ashley and Kasumi strapped into their seats just as Cortez launched the Kodiak full speed towards the palace. As the shuttle flew on, Shepard was silently chanting "come on" over and over praying that they would get to the palace before the bomb detonated. He was starting to breathe a little easier once he had a visual of the palace. Then it happened.

The first thing Shepard saw was bright flash of light coming from the palace. It faded quickly but Shepard knew what he saw. The bomb had detonated. Then the shuttle shook violently as the systems shut down. Shepard could see that the palace was still fast approaching. He turned to Cortez who gave him a quick nod. That gave Shepard all the confidence he needed. Cortez knew that he was going to get them there. Shepard braced himself for impact.

The shuttle landed on the roof of the palace like a twenty-first century airplane. Unfortunately because it didn't have the landing gear that they did, it slid uncontrollably across the roof. As it slid, Shepard noticed that Cortez was starting to panic. Shepard looked ahead and realized why. The roof was not long enough to allow the shuttle to come to a stop before falling off. Shepard ordered everyone to abandon ship. One by one they jumped off the shuttle with Shepard being the last to jump. The shuttle fell off the roof shortly afterwards crashing into some trees below. Once everyone got back on their feet, they raised their weapons and did a quick survey for any reaction to the crash.

"Well if they didn't know we were coming before I'm sure that crash got their attention," Ashley said.

"Right but at least that buys us time to find Pazness," Shepard said.

"How do you figure that?" Kasumi asked.

"I know Balak. He'll use Pazness as a hostage to buy time to work out an escape plan."

"That's how he got away from us last time," Ashley said.

"And we're not going to let him do it again. Lieutenant, radio the Normandy and get us some backup down here."

"You got it Captain," Cortez replied, "I'll wait here on the roof for them. Plus if the terrorists want to meet an escape vehicle up here I can ambush them."

"Good. Williams, Kasumi, let's move. We've got a politician to save."

"Aye-aye skipper," Ashley said.

"Right behind you Shep," Kasumi said.

The trio headed for the roof access hatch and climbed down into the palace.


	6. Chapter 6

Shepard was the first one down the hatch. Once he hit the floor he turned his rifle's flashlight on and scanned the room. Ashley and Kasumi followed suit. After determining the room was clear, Shepard opened a door allowing Ashley and Kasumi to scout the hallway. The sight that greeted them was not a pretty one.

Bodies of palace security guards were scattered throughout the hallway. Each one was riddled with several bullet holes. But something else got Shepard's attention. Some of the bodies were not security guards. He could tell because they were not wearing the uniforms the guards wore. It was bad news to see the guards dead but it was good to know that some of Balak's men were dead too. This meant there would be fewer terrorists for them to deal with.

Besides the bodies, the only other items in the hallway were rows of statues on pedestals. Before Shepard could enter the hallway with the ladies, Ashley tapped her ear. She could hear something.

They all listened and could hear voices coming at the end of the hallway. Shepard turned off his flashlight and ordered everyone to get behind cover. The statues provided it easily. Shepard peaked around the statue he was hiding behind and saw two batarians coming down the hallway. It was dark but Shepard could see that they were not wearing palace guard uniforms. They had to be some of Balak's remaining men. He was about to give some signals to Ashley and Kasumi but then something else caught his attention. The dark still made it hard to see many details but something about the terrorists' clothes was triggering a warning bell in his head. Before he could place it, he heard something that sounded like an air leak. It was Ashley making a hissing sound.

"Orders skipper?" she whispered.

Shepard was about to respond when the terrorists started talking again. He held his hand out and waved it down telling Ashley and Kasumi to stay down. Something was wrong with what the terrorists were saying.

"Where could he be?" the first terrorist said. "Balak said this was supposed to be a get in, take out the target and get out mission. We should have been gone by now."

"I know," said the second terrorist, "and add that to that Alliance shuttle that crashed outside, we might not have as much time as we want."

This was great news. The terrorists hadn't found Pazness yet meaning Shepard and his squad still had a chance to stop the assassination. Shepard continued to watch as the terrorists came closer but then decided to enter one of the rooms. Once they were out of the hallway, Shepard opened another room and waved Ashley and Kasumi inside.

"They haven't found Pazness yet," Shepard said, "if we're going to find him before Balak does we need to split up. Before we arrived I called the batarian councilor and asked him to send me a floor plan for the palace. He not only did, but he sent me one that has some recently made notes about where some panic rooms had been installed."

As Shepard said his last statement, he used his omni-tool to send the floor paln to Ashley and Kasumi's omni-tools.

"There are three of them," Shepard continued, "two on this floor and one on the floor below us. Williams and I will take the two on this floor. Kasumi you can use your tactical cloak to sneak down to the first floor undetected and check the panic room down there. Any bataraian not wearing a guard uniform is to be considered hostile. They already know we're here but they don't know exactly where we are so let's not give them any hints. Take hostiles out only if it can't be avoided."

Ashley and Kasumi nodded, acknowledging they understood their orders. Shepard cracked the door open and looked outside and saw the terrorists hadn't come back into the hall. He gave an all clear signal and Ashley and Kasumi exited the room to head for their respected panic rooms. Shepard closed the door behind him and went to his room. Adrenaline was flowing through him. If he could find Pazness first, not only would Pazness be safe but Balak wouldn't have any cards to play. Balak was not going to get away from him this time.

* * *

Shepard's advice for Kasumi paid off. She was able to sneak down to the first floor all the while using her tactical cloak to remain unseen. Although the tactical cloak did allow her remain invisible to the naked eye, there was still the risk that she would give herself away by the sounds of her footsteps. Fortunately Kasumi could move as quiet as mouse. It affected her speed but it was better to take it slow and steady instead of fast and rough.

After sneaking by the two guards who were based at the bottom of the stairs, Kasumi made her way to the panic room. There weren't many guards on the first floor so it was easy for her to get there quickly. The room where the panic room was based was the palace library. According to the floor plan Shepard gave her, it was located behind a bookshelf along the wall opposite the door. Kasumi felt along the bookshelf until she felt a book that felt hollow. It had to be the switch that opened the panic room. But was that all that the book did?

Kasumi pulled up her x-ray vision. She could see that the book was connected to a series of gears that could open the door. Other than that, there didn't seem to be any other security systems on the door. Kasumi thought that was strange. It wasn't much of a panic room if just anyone could open it, unless this wasn't meant to be a panic room. Kasumi pulled the book and the shelf moved to the side revealing the hidden room. Right on the other side of the room was another door. Based on Kasumi's position in the palace, the door had to lead outside.

The room Kasumi was in was not designed to hide Pazness, it was meant to give him an escape route. Somehow Kasumi felt that Pazness didn't get a chance to use it. Balak's men would have hit the palace immediately after the bomb went off cutting off any chance for Paness to get to the escape route. His best chance would have been to get to one of the actual panic rooms on the second floor. All Kasumi could do now was hope that Shepard or Ashley would call to confirm they had located Pazness. At any rate she had to regroup with them so she made her way out of the secret room back into the library.

"Kasumi."

Kasumi froze before she could take a step out of the secret room.

"Oh no," she thought, "not again."

"Kasumi."

Keiji's voice was calling for her again. Kasumi spun in a circle trying to see where the voice was coming from. Finally she saw him standing in the secret room. He didn't gesture for her to follow him like last time. He just stood there staring at her. Kasumi started taking steps back to head out of the library. Then Keiji started walking toward her. His face, which up until this point was nothing more than an emotionless stare, was now displaying pure anger. Kasumi pulled out her Kassa Locust and aimed at Keiji.

"Keiji stay back," she said with a slight stutter.

Keiji seemed to show no sign that he even heard what Kasumi said. He just kept moving closer and closer to her. His face was now turning red. It was almost as if his head was a volcano and was boiling towards the blasting point. Kasumi's hand started to shake as she continued to take steps away from Keiji.

"Kasumi….Kasumi….Kasumi."

Keiji started chanting Kasumi's name. Each time he said it, his tone grew more and more aggressive. Kasumi was starting to hear other voices in her head but couldn't understand what was being said because of Keiji's chanting. Her finger slowly started to pull her gun's trigger.

"Kausmi. Kasumi! KASUMI!

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS KEIJI!" Kasumi screamed.

The next sound to fill the room was the sound of multiple shots being fired.

* * *

A few minutes earlier:

Shepard had managed to sneak past the guards that were on this floor and was approaching Pazness' office. He raised his rifle and stepped inside. A quick scan of the room revealed no one inside. It made sense to him. Balak and his men already searched here for Pazness and moved on. Hopefully it was because they didn't know about the panic room.

The floor plan indicated that the panic room was opened by a button in Pazness' desk. With his gun still raised, Shepard eased his way towards the desk. He scanned the desk but couldn't find any buttons on the surface. Shepard smiled. That would have been too easy. He felt underneath the desk with still no luck. Kneeling down, he looked through all the drawers but he still couldn't find a button. Could the floor plan have been wrong?

Before Shepard rose up from his kneeling position, he noticed something on the underside of the desk. There was a small spot that was a different color from the rest of the desk. He felt the spot and realized that it was the button already pressed in. Shepard figured it was designed to lock so that no one on outside could open the panic room once Pazness used it. Pazness had to be in the panic room.

Shepard then noticed a painting of a landscape located on the wall to the right of the desk. The blueprint did mention that was where the door to the panic room was located.

"Pazness," he said as quietly as he could, "I'm Captain Shepard with the Citadel Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. If you can hear me, knock twice."

Silence followed. Scanning the room revealed that there were no cameras. Pazness had no way of seeing who was on the other side of the door. Shepard was going to need to figure some way to convince Pazness that he was who he said he was.

"Pazness you know me. My ship the Normandy came and rescued you from Camala when the Reapers had control of the system. Again, if you can hear me, knock twice."

Finally two knocks were heard coming from behind the wall. It worked.

"Ok sir. The terrorists don't know about the panic room so you'll be safe in here. My team and I will clear the building and come to get you out when it's all clear. Knock once if you understand."

Knock.

After receiving the confirmation knock, Shepard started to head out of the office. He stopped when he heard Ashley's voice coming over his comm.

"Captain this is Williams," she said, "I've searched the panic room in the master bedroom. No sign of Panzess. What about you?"

"I've got him," Shepard replied, "He'll be safe in the panic room here in the office. Now that we know he's secure we can engage the hostiles. Keep your weapons suppressed though. The longer we have surprise on our side the better."

"Copy skipper, I'll meet you back at the office."

"Roger that. Kasumi, Pazness is secure. We are now weapons free on hostiles. Williams and I will clear the second floor and will join you downstairs when we're done."

Silence.

"Kasumi do you copy? Kasumi?"

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS KEIJI!"

Shepard was initially surprised by the sudden scream that came over his comm. Then he heard what sounded like sub-machine gunfire coming from downstairs followed by voices coming from the hallways. If Shepard and his squad had an element of surprise, it had just vanished over the course of a few seconds.


	7. Chapter 7

A minute earlier:

Outside the palace, Balak and three of his men were investigating the shuttle they found at the top of some trees. The shuttle was pretty banged up but the Systems Alliance logo was still distinguishable. Balak seemed to be getting tense at the sight of the logo.

"He's here," he said.

"Who's here sir?" asked one of his men.

"Shepard. I knew I should have killed him on the Citadel when I had the chance. Now he's here to ruin my plans once again. What is taking so long finding Pazness?"

"We've searched the whole palace sir but there is no sign of him," said another soldier.

"Well that's just terrific. Do you any of you geniuses have a bright idea for what we should do now?"

Before any of the men could respond, the sound of gunfire came from inside the palace. Balak and the two of the men raced for the palace to investiage. The third man, the one who had been quiet the entire time, stayed behind as the others left. Once they were out of sight, the solider activated his comm. and placed a call.

"It's me," he said, "The operation is not going as planned. They can't find him anywhere."

There was a pause as the voice on the other end of the call spoke.

"Don't worry. The target will be eliminated."

After he ended the call, the soldier pulled out a Black Widow sniper rifle and ran inside the palace using an entrance different from the one Balak used.

* * *

"Williams," Shepard said over the comm. "Kasumi's in trouble. We need to get downstairs."

"On my way," Ashley replied.

Shepard gave a quick call out to Pazness telling him that he would be back. He then raced for the door but stopped when he heard footsteps. Someone was coming and they were in a hurry. This gave Shepard an idea. Waiting until the footsteps were just outside the door, Shepard pushed the button to open the door and quickly put his back to the wall next to the doorway. The terrorists on the other side quickly turned towards the office and fired their weapons. When they stopped firing and before they realized there was no one there, Shepard had pulled out his pistol and stepped out of his hiding place. He fired one shot at both terrorists' heads. Both of them were down in seconds.

Shots fired in a room down the hall got Shepard's attention. He raced towards the sound only to be greeted by a terrorist being thrown out of the room. Immediately after terrorist hit the floor, a bullet pierced his chest. Shepard peeked into the room to see Ashley holstering her side arm. Two other terrorists lay dead on the floor near her.

"The guy in the hall tried to get fresh with me," she said with a chuckle, "so I showed him the door."

Shepard chuckled back, "remind me to never get on your bad side when we're married. We've probably taken care of all the hostiles on this floor. Let's get downstairs."

They were about to head for the stairs when a new voice came over Shepard's comm. The voice made Shepard tense up when he recognized it. Balak.

"Shepard," he said, "I know it's you that's sneaking around upstairs. I thought you might like to know that I have a member of your squad with me. She's quite a jumpy one. I came into the library to find her shooting her gun at the air and screaming. I always heard that you picked your squads better than this. Sounds like the stories about you aren't quite true."

Shepard mouthed the word "library" to Ashley. Ashley nodded to show she understood and the two of them slowly walked down the stairs heading for the library. Both had their pistols raised ready to take down anyone they came across along the way. Shepard and Williams reached the bottom of the stairs and headed towards the library's open doors. The first thing they saw when they entered was Kasumi with Balak's gun at her head. Kasumi's face was a white as a sheet and her body was shaking. Shepard figured that it wasn't because of Balak. Balak stood behind her with one arm wrapped around her neck and the other pushing his gun closer to her face. Standing on either side of them were two terrorists, each pointing their rifles at Shepard and Ashley.

"Let her go Balak," Shepard said, "it's over. You're not getting Pazness and we have backup on the way. The only thing you can do now is decide whether you want to get out of this in handcuffs or a body bag."

"You're overlooking the other option Shepard," Balak replied, "I use your squad mate as my hostage and threaten to kill her if you don't let me go. Are you getting a sense of déjà vu yet Shepard?"

Shepard knew all too well what Balak was talking about. During his hunt for rogue Spectre Saren Arterius, Shepard and his crew prevented Balak from sending a large asteroid to destroy the colony of Terra Nova. Unfortunately when Shepard tried to apprehend Balak, he found that Balak had taken the asteroid's engineering team hostage. In their cells were explosive devices that Balak would detonate if Shepard tried to stop him from escaping. Not willing to sacrifice innocent lives to stop Balak, Shepard let him go. Now Shepard found himself in an eerily similar situation. This time however, Shepard had a plan to ensure Balak would not get away.

Shepard lowered his weapon. Ashley looked over at him like he was crazy. Shepard turned to Ashley and mouthed "trust me". He then turned his attention back to Balak. The first step was to get Balak and his men distracted and the best way to do it was get Balak talking.

"Okay Balak," he said, "you win. If you promise to let Kasumi go, you and what's left of your team can walk out of here."

As Shepard was speaking, he reached behind his back and started pushing some buttons on his omini-tool. In between pushes he used his hands to give some silent signals to Ashley. Using her peripheral vision, Ashley was able to see the signals and Shepard using his omni-tool. She now understood what Shepard was up to and waited for him to give the "go" signal.

"You really are predictable Shepard," Balak said with subtle cackle, "one of these days you're inability to sacrifice lives to accomplish your mission is going to be the death of you."

"Maybe but it helps me sleep at night. It reminds me that I'm not a monster like you."

Balak's face tensed up. Shepard had struck a nerve.

"I'M NOT A MONSTER!" Balak screamed.

Shepard kept his finger hovering over a button on his omni-tool. The first step of his plan was working. He just had to wait a few more seconds before he executed the final step.

"All I wanted to do was help my people. I wanted to help them regain the glory that we once had and maybe more. In spite of everything I've done for us, my people betrayed me! They said my plans for us were too extreme and would be the death of us but really they were just too afraid to do what needs to be done."

Balak's anger was boiling over. His men were now starting to get into his speech. Just a few more seconds Shepard thought.

"We may not have Pazness but this attack will show them what we are capable of. They will be willing to negotiate with us to prevent further attacks. Once I've convinced them to withdraw from the Council and take me back as Supreme Leader, then the galaxy will be at the mercy of the batarians! NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO….!"

NOW!

Shepard pushed the last button on his omni-tool and suddenly the whole room seemed to slow down around him. Balak had been so deeply involved in his speech that it took him by surprise when his gun went off. His men jumped when they heard the gun. Before either of them could figure out what happened, Ashley raised her rifle and fired two quick shots at each of the terrorists at Balak's sides. They dropped without even having a chance to raise their own weapons. Shepard was now raising his pistol. He took quick aim and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew past Kasumi's head and passed right through Balak's. There was a look of confusion on Balak's face before his eyes closed and he fell down dead. Within the course of three seconds, Shepard had finally brought Balak to justice.

Shepard turned to see Kasumi lying on the floor next to Balak. Ashley was already tending to her when he walked over. Kasumi was looking spooked when they first entered the library but now she was nervous wreck. She kept feeling her head expecting to feel a bullet hole. When she found out that there wasn't one, she became confused.

"I…I don't understand," she stuttered, "I…I should be…dead. Balak…he…he shot me…in the head. How am I…still alive?"

"It's ok Kasumi," said Shepard, "you're safe now. I'll explain everything after we get you back on the Normandy and the doctor has taken a look at you. Williams can you help Kasumi outside and wait for our backup?"

"You got it skipper," Ashley replied.

Ashley slowly helped Kasumi to her feet and offered her shoulder for support. Once Kasumi was stable, Ashley escorted her through the library's escape route to the outside. Shepard watched them all the way out the door. After the ladies were gone Shepard looked down at Balak's body. He was not the kind of person who took pleasure in killing anybody but he was glad that Balak was no longer going to be a threat to the galaxy. A terrorist was dead and a leader was safe. Mission: accomplished.

Before Shepard could head outside, his attention was caught once again by the terrorist's outfits. It was a bit lighter in the library than it was upstairs so the details of the clothes could be seen more clearly. What was it about the clothes that were causing warning bells to go off in Shepard's head? It wasn't until he took a look at some of the weapons that were lying by the terrorists that he realized what it was. He was going to have to call Liara to be sure but something told him that she would come to the same realization that he did and unfortunately it was not a good one.


	8. Chapter 8

Kasumi was seated on one of the beds in the Normandy's medical bay. Dr. Chakwas had assured her that there was nothing physically wrong with her. How she was doing emotionally was another story. Shepard and Ashley were seated in chairs across from her. It was tough for them to see their friend like this. Whatever happened to Kasumi before Balak took her hostage had spooked her to the point that she couldn't talk without a stutter. Hopefully now that things had finally quieted down they could get some answers from her. But first they had to answer Kasumi's question.

"How am…how am I sti…still alive?" she asked. "Balak sh…shot me in th…the head."

"No Kasumi he didn't," Shepard replied, "it only looked like he did. I managed to remotely sabotage Balak's gun so that the thermal clip would overheat and explode. Balak and his men being shocked by the unexpected explosion gave Ashley and me the time we needed to take them down before they could hurt you. I learned the trick from an acquaintance of mine named Jenna. She used the same trick to save Conrad Verner's life when he tried to shield me from a Cerberus operative's bullet."

"What abou…what about Pazness? Is he…o…okay?"

"He's fine. He was in his office when the bomb went off and got into the panic room immediately afterwards. Balak and his men seemed to have no idea the panic rooms existed so they couldn't find him. If it hadn't been for that we might not have been able to stop the assassination."

"The batarians are saying that the power should be back on soon," said Ashley, "also the batarian councilor says that the splinter faction has completely disbanded following Balak's death. Without their leader they don't have the unity they once had to keep the group together. We stopped a coup and brought down a terrorist organization. All in all we couldn't have asked for a better outcome to this mission."

"Indeed but let's not talk about the mission anymore. Ashley and I are more worried about you Kasumi. What happened to you down there?"

Kasumi got up from her bed and walked over to look out the window into the mess hall. A tear fell down her face as the memory of what she saw passed through her mind. She took a deep breath to try and calm down. At the very least she wanted to be able to talk without stuttering. It was going to be a long explanation if she couldn't. Finally she turned back to Shepard and Ashley and explained everything that happened: Keiji appearing again, how his face became red with anger, how he walked closer and closer to her while angrily was chanting her name and how she fired her gun at him just before Balak took her hostage.

"Kasumi," Ashley said when Kasumi finished, "that's awful. I can't imagine how terrifying that must have been for you to see."

Ashley then got out of her chair and gave Kasumi a hug. Shepard just sat in his chair thinking. He knew that the only way to stop Kasumi from completely losing her mind was to destroy the graybox but he couldn't force her to do it. That could easily do more damage. However, doing nothing was going to guarantee that Kasumi would never get better.

"Where is the graybox Kasumi?" he asked.

Kasumi broke away from Ashley's hug and looked at Shepard.

"Why?"

"You know why."

More tears started to fall from Kasumi's eyes. She took some steps away from Shepard and Ashley. She wanted to make a break for the door and get away from this conversation. But then she stopped. Something was keeping her from going any further. Was Shepard right about Keiji's graybox? Even though she was thinking it, the words she spoke didn't show it.

"No. No you can't destroy the graybox. I need it. Without it there will be nothing left of him. I won't let him go. I won't."

"I'm not asking you to let him go," Shepard said as he rose up from his chair, "but that graybox is going to destroy you if you keep using it like this. Twice now you were nearly killed because you started seeing Keiji and each time you were left in shock for quite some time afterwards. This can't go on."

"But…"

"You will always have your memories of Keiji. You might not be able to have them visualized but they are still there. He will always be with you. Besides you just told us that you were seeing Keiji with a red face and he was sounding angry at you. Does that really sound like the Keiji you knew?"

"…No."

"Is it really worth keeping that graybox when it's causing you to see Keiji like that?"

Kasumi turned away from Shepard and Ashley and started thinking. She kept the graybox so that she can see Keiji whenever she wanted to. Having the chance to actually visualize all their times together helped her cope with his death. But now instead of helping her remember Keiji as he was, the graybox was causing her to see him in ways that she never had nor wanted to see. The image of Keiji filled with anger was now something she could never un-see and one she could have avoided if she never had used the graybox. There was no other choice. If she wanted to keep her memories of Keiji as they are, she needed the graybox to be destroyed.

"It's by my bed in the crew quarters," she said with a sob, "could you…would you destroy it for me? I don't want to see it ever again."

"Of course," Shepard said, "wait here. Ashley, would you come with me please?"

Ashley became confused. Destroying a graybox didn't require two people and she figured it would be better for her to wait with Kasumi. Why would Shepard ask for her to come with him? She gave Kasumi one more hug before following Shepard out.

"When we get back we can talk more about the wedding," she said to Kasumi.

A small smile appeared on Kasumi's face, "does this mean I'm still invited?"

"Of course, any member of the Normandy crew, past or present, is practically family. We would love to have you come."

"Well then you can put me down as attending."

Shepard rolled his eyes. He realized that after he was done destroying the graybox he was going to be stuck in another wedding conversation. The day he married Ashley would not only be one of the best days of his life but it would also be the day where he can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he would never have to talk about the preparations ever again. But the wedding talk was not his main concern right now. He needed to talk to Ashley about what had been bothering him since they first entered the presidential palace. After the two of them were out of earshot of Kasumi, Ashley spoke first.

"Forgive me if I'm a bit confused as to why you wanted me to come with you to destroy the graybox," she said.

"I figured it would give us a chance to talk about the mission," Shepard replied.

"Yeah I was wondering how the debriefing with Hackett went."

"He was happy to hear that we saved Pazness and that Balak is no longer a threat. The batarian councilor asked Hackett to pass along his thanks for our assistance. But Hackett was not happy when I told him that there was more to Balak's attack than we thought."

"I don't understand. How could there be more? Balak was a terrorist who wanted to blackmail the government to withdraw from the Council and let him become the Supreme Leader. It sounds like a simple motive to me."

"It's not the motive that I think there is more to. It's how Balak was able to launch the attack. When we first came across the terrorists I had warning bells in my head going off when I saw their outfits. It wasn't until the mission was over that I realized why. Their uniforms were nothing more than rags. They were similar to stuff that I saw the refugees wearing during the war. On top of that, the weapons they were using are some of the worst weapons that are available on the market. I just couldn't figure out why Balak would spend a large amount of credits on an EMP bomb and hardly anything to arm himself and his men."

Shepard and Ashley arrived at the crew quarters and found the bed that they loaned Kasumi while she was on board the Normandy. The graybox was on a night table. Shepard picked it up and plugged it in to the terminal in the room. Once he pulled up the files, he stared at the screen for a minute. He knew destroying the graybox was necessary but that didn't make it easier for him to do it. Finally he started deleting files. Ashley stood behind him but she wasn't focused on what Shepard was doing with the graybox. She was thinking about what Shepard had told her.

"Based on everything that's happened to Balak since the end of the war," she said, "I think it's safe to assume that he didn't have access to a lot of funds. Maybe he just didn't have enough funds to spend on weapons and armor."

"That's what I thought," Shepard said as continued deleting files, "but if that was the case, how could he have afforded to buy the bomb in the first place. You saw Corin's transaction records. That bomb was not cheap. I asked Liara to check Balak's financials again. Until recently he had nowhere near enough credits to buy the bomb but then suddenly the exact amount he needed just appeared. Where would he get that much money in a short amount of time? He couldn't steal it because his little funds would not have been able to fund a pirate operation. The only way he could get that kind of money would be if someone gave it to him."

"But why would someone give a madman credits to fund a terrorist attack?"

"I don't know and I don't know who Balak would trust enough to accept credits from. Liara said that whoever gave Balak the funds did a really good job of covering their tracks. I explained all this to Hackett. He believes my theory but without any leads to go on there is nothing we can do about it. All we can do is be thankful we stopped Balak's coup."

As Shepard finished his statement, the last of the files on the graybox had been deleted. Convinced that graybox was completely clean of data, he smashed it against a table causing it to shatter into several pieces. He and Ashley got down on the ground and gathered the pieces up to throw into the trash.

"We can also be glad that we helped Kasumi," Ashley said, "now that she's decided to destroy the graybox and with us as support I think she'll be fine."

"Yeah," said Shepard, "speaking of support, thanks for having my back on this mission."

Ashley smiled, "Always."

Once the last piece of the graybox was in the trash, Shepard put his arm around Ashley's shoulders and the couple walked out of the crew's quarters to meet Kasumi back in the med lab.

Epilogue:

Back on Khar'shan, the lone solider was hiding behind a tree a few yards from the presidential palace. From his position he could see the work crews working to restore the power to the palace. He also noticed ambulances being loaded with body's that were coming out of the palace. Convinced that no one was looking towards his direction, he stepped out of his hiding place and began walking away from the palace.

A few feet into his journey, he heard a ringing coming from his omni-tool. Someone was calling him and he had a pretty good idea who it was. It was not someone he was looking forward to talking to. With a shaky hand he pushed the button to accept the call. He jumped when he was greeted by a distorted voice.

"Report," said the voice.

The batarians nerves caused him to stutter his reply, "I…I beg to report… that phase one was a fa…failure."

A sigh came over the bataraian's omni-tool, "It was Shepard wasn't it?"

"I'm sorry."

"Shepard prevented the mission from being completed."

"Ye…Yes."

"Well, if it wasn't for the fact that the next phase does not require this mission being a success I would have you shot for this failure. You should consider yourself lucky."

The batarian let out a sigh of relief, "thank you. I promise I won't fail you again."

"We still have a lot of preparations to make before we can commence phase two. I've sent a shuttle to bring you back to base. Out."

When the voice cut the communication, the batarian took one last look behind him to ensure he wasn't being followed. Seeing no one behind him, he continued on his way towards a shuttle that was waiting for him up ahead. The shuttle doors opened revealing a turian and human on board. Before the batarian could set foot onto the shuttle, the turian raised a pistol and fired a bullet right into the batarian's head. The human smiled as the batarian fell down dead.

"The boss didn't say anything about 'us' not shooting you for your failure," he said, "or that the shuttle would be bringing you back to the base alive."

After saying this, the human and the turain loaded the dead batarian onto the shuttle and ordered the pilot to take off. The shuttle then rose off the ground and shot into the sky to leave Khar'shan.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

_A/N: Don't worry everyone. This is not the end of After the War. It is only the end of the first part. I am already at work on the second part. This first chapter of that story will be uploaded sometime in June. The only thing I will tease about it is that Shepard's next enemy will be someone that, very similar to Balak, he had to choose between killing him or letting him go to save civilians._


End file.
